Tag: SOVIET UNION

Another round of mini-reviews, this time of some books I’ve recently read on the Eastern Front of World War II as part of research for the upcoming sequels to Sparrow Squadron.

I managed to avoid an 0-fer June. For July I’ll try not to cut it so close. My blogging is still sparse thanks to the research and work I’m doing for a pair of sequels. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Here are mini-reviews of four books that I’ve read on the Eastern Front of World War II. For some other book recommendations on the subject, please check out my list of memoirs of the Eastern Front.

You may also get a hint as to what’s to come in the next installment of Aelita’s War.

I was invited to write a guest post for P.K. Adams’s history blog to help celebrate unsung women heroes for Women’s History Month.

In the course of researching my novel, I came across many stories of women who fought for the Soviet Union. Since my story focuses on fighter pilots, I was especially interested in those who flew in combat. Other historical fiction writing highlights the night bomber crews, the famous “Night Witches.” For my post, I thought it would be good to highlight three other women pilots who deserve more recognition: one was an air ambulance pilot celebrated on propaganda posters; one flew ground attack planes and survived a German death camp only to be persecuted by the Soviets after the war; and one commanded a regiment of male pilots and has a monument to her in Moscow.

Many thanks to P.K. Adams for giving me this opportunity at writing this guest post, or “outpost,” as I’d like to call it, to avoid confusing with guest posts on my own blog 😊. Don’t @ me!

Nearly eight decades ago, Soviet women fighter pilots proved they could be the Top Guns of their day.

We live in a time when shockingly regressive views can gain traction and popularity. Case in point: apparently some people aren’t convinced that women can fly planes. That deserves a “well, actually:” women have been involved with powered flight since the very beginning.

While pioneering early aviators like Amelia Earhart may have seemed like novelties or aberrations, that changed with World War II. Just as it was a time for women to prove in large numbers they could do “a man’s job” in science and industry, this was also when women proved they could fly planes just as well. Air forces on all sides employed women as test pilots and to ferry new planes to the front lines. Moreover, in the Soviet Union, women pilots were put to the ultimate test in combat.

Due to the Cold War, the contribution of Soviet women combat pilots was little known in the West. Thankfully, more and more, their history is coming to light. Most of the attention goes to the “Night Witches,” an all-female regiment of bomber pilots. Flying their antiquated biplanes in the dead of night, they are a plucky underdog story. But arguably more amazing is the fact that the Soviet Union also entrusted women with the most expensive and technologically advanced hardware the Motherland had to offer: fighter planes.